Publications Received 207 



Publications Reviewed 



The Birds of Connecticut. State of Connecticut State Geological 

 and Natural History Survey, Bulletin No. 20. By Jolin Hall 

 Sage, M.S., Secretary of the American Ornithologists' Union, and 

 Louis Bennett Bishop, M.D., Fellow of the American Ornitholo- 

 gists' Union, assisted by Walter Parks Bliss, M.A., Hartford, 1913, 



In an Introduction of four and a half pages the location of the 

 state is given, and a glimpse of its topography and faunal areas, 

 which are defined as Allegheniau over the greater part of the state, 

 with a small area of Canadian in the north-western corner, or at 

 least Canadian affinities. We learn that the first definite state 

 list was prepared by Rev. James H. Linsley and published in 1843, 

 the second! by Dr. C. Hart M'erriam in 1877, and thirty-four years 

 after the first list, while the present list appears after an equal 

 lapse of time. The Introduction closes with a plea for accuracy in 

 making records which can be certainly secured only when speci- 

 mens of unusual birds are collected. It is clearly shown that sudh 

 collecting as this entails does not menace the bird life of airy re- 

 gion. 



In the treatment of the 329 native species known to occur within 

 the borders of Connecticut the names and sequences of the Oheck- 

 List of the American Ornithologists' Union are followed, but the 

 numbers happily omitted. Divisions are made including orders, 

 suborders, families, subfamilies, the scientific name followed by the 

 vernaculair name. There follows a statement of the status of the 

 species in the state, the earliest and the latest seasonal records, 

 breeding records of breeding birds and earliest and latest migra- 

 tion records of transient birds. In the case of unusual or rare oc- 

 currence all records are given. A statistical summary shows that 

 the list comprises SO i*esident species, 78 sunmier residents, 38 win- 

 ter residents, 124 transient visitors, and 80 accidental visitors. 

 There are five introduced species included. The grand total shows 

 334 for the state, w'hich seems large for so small a state as Connec- 

 ticut, with practically but one life zone. This may not appear so 

 unlikely when it is known that some 150 persons are named as 

 contributors in one way or another. In a bibliography of 57 pages 

 there appears a further reiuson why the number of birds recorded 

 in the state is so large. The book closes with about a hundred 

 pages on Economic Ornithology, by Dr. Bishop. The treatment is 

 systematically by groups, but many species are separately treated 

 where their importance warrants such separate treatment. An ex- 

 cellent Index adds much to the usefulness of the book. The typog- 

 raphy and paper leave little to be desired. As a contribution to 



